Down With Love
Starring: Renee Zellweger, Ewan McGregor, David Hyde-Pierce, Sarah Paulson Director: Peyton Reed Category: IIA
The premise behind Down With Love is that there is an audience out there - somewhere - in desperate need of a walk down memory lane. Director Peyton Reed (Bring It On) makes no bones about the type of film he's making here: it is a light and fluffy battle of the sexes of the type that fits the pairing of Doris Day and Rock Hudson so snugly. Those films were never everyone's cup of tea but they did have their charms and Reed follows their formula to the letter.
Instead of Hudson, we have the equally suave Ewan McGregor. Instead of Day we have the equally bright and bubbly Renee Zellweger. The premise is always that they shouldn't get together - but they will - and we know this from the first time they set eyes on each other. Zellweger plays an early 1960s author who urges women to forgo romance for more basic desires; McGregor a cocksure journalist who sets out to prove that all she really needs is a little bit of love. It is a smart and savvy pairing and the camera loves the pair. You get plenty of McGregor prancing around in his boxer shorts, and of Zellweger biting her bottom lip and looking cute. So whether or not you fancy the film will depend on whether or not you can deal with their semi-smug air.
The best laughs are provided by David Hyde-Pierce as McGregor's boss, using the clever and cutting lines fans of his role in TV's Frasier will be familiar with. For many, though, what will matter most are the clothes, and the impeccably designed sets. Like last year's Catch Me If You Can, you are reminded that films - as a fantasy - can create a world that is more clean-cut than the real one could ever hope to be. It looks fabulous.
Down With Love makes no real effort to be anything more than a piece of bubblegum entertainment. So we know - as was the case with the Day-Hudson combos of yore - this will always provide more style than substance. But sometimes a little bit of style can go a long way.